Homicidal injury with dessert spoon – A case report

Abstract

Background: A dessert spoon seems unsuspecting to be called as a dangerous weapon and external injuries caused may be atypical and obscure that could be overlooked. Penetrating cranial injuries by spoon are very rare and furthermore resulting isolated traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage (tSAH) without other intra cranial injuries is uncommon. Case report: This paper presents a peculiar case of homicide committed with a dessert spoon. During post-mortem examination an unusual small stab injury was found in the superior eyelid. Profuse sub-arachnoid hemorrhage was present involving bilateral cerebral hemisphere. Cerebral edema and midline shift was absent. Discussion: This case report describes a rare case of penetrating skull injury resulting in sudden death due to traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage. Intracranial hemorrhagic complications of penetrating brain injury can cause sudden death mostly due to pressure effect, neurogenic shock or Ischemia. In present case in absence of cerebral edema, vasospasm followed by cerebral ischemia seems most likely etiology. Conclusion: These type of injuries can go unnoticed due to obscure nature. Meticulous examination is needed to determine cause and manner of death in such cases.

Keywords

• Dangerous weapon
• Forensic pathology
• Stab injury
• Subarachnoid hemorrhage
• Homocide